Abstract:
Leaders in the twenty-first century face a complex and challenging business environment. The
pace of technological change and globalisation has created an environment that requires
organisations to deal with increased complexity and uncertainty. Organisational leaders must
navigate these complexities while also balancing operational stability. Managing disruption
requires adaptive, innovative, and creative approaches. This research study aims to provide
additional insights into the influence of leadership on innovation and adaptation within complex
adaptive systems (CAS). It builds upon existing literature on leadership complexity theories,
highlighting the significance of relational and emergent processes. The study examines
leader-follower dynamics and their potential to enhance organisational adaptability to
disruptions.
This research study used a qualitative method to explore the lived experiences of 16 followers
within the research setting of the COVID-19 epidemic. The study followed a phenomenological
research design to explore the lived experiences of followers. The exploration included their
observations of disruption, their perspective of leadership during disruption, the leaderfollower
dynamics they experienced during disruption and their own experience of their role
expansion during adaptation. Overall, followers' lived experiences within a complex adaptive
system during disruption and adaptation are multifaceted. Effective leadership
communication, the intricate dynamics between leaders and followers, and the environment's
supportiveness shape these experiences. The findings highlight the need for further research
on the impact of negative role perceptions and the potential of extending evolutionary
leadership theory and constructionist leadership constructs to complex leadership theory as
they contribute to understanding the dampening effects on leadership emergence and
amplification.
One of the study's main limitations is that it only looked at an external disruption within one
sector. Including only followers provides a perspective on the complexity phenomenon;
however, it is a limitation as there could be additional insights by expanding the study to include
both the lived experience of leaders and followers.
